Where Did She Come From?
by LetsWriteFanFic
Summary: Whilst waiting to get on a case, Rossi brings a young girl to the BAU. However, did he only bring a kid to the FBI, or something a bit darker?
1. Chapter 1

**Like any teenage criminal minds fanatic/wannabe actress, a part in CM would be the ideal gig.. Which got me thinking...**

**Aside from victims, there are no female teenagers... So I wrote one in!**

**As sad as it is, I don't own criminal minds. **

**This me my first fic so be nice and dont forget to R&R! I wont write more if no one wants more! Im not even sure if ****_I_**** like the idea**

It was 6am when JJ had set phones ringing. They were due in Maine. Five murders in two weeks, each with astoundingly different MOs and victimology, a fact that'd kept the liaison's mind steadily questioning her decision that this was serial (_but of course it had to be, the chances of five murders all happening at once?_). Two boys, ages 6 and 17, a girl aged 13, a man in his thirties and an elderly woman, each killed with entirely varying means: a serrated blade, a .50 hand gun, a drowning, a strangling and empaling. JJ had shuddered at the latter. A sharpened broom handle to the head. Gruesome.

The team, red-eyed and grumbling, had stumbled into the meetings room at seven, hands clasping case files, cell phones and coffee in a valid attempt to spike themselves into a caffeinated wakefulness. Rossi hadn't shown but he'd informed them all the day before, stating it was a "friends and family matter", not that any of the team were aware he had either friends or family outside the BAU. But still they gathered in the familiar room, one man down, and skimmed through the details of the case. Obviously their attentions were drawn to the vast range of victims and methods of kill. Reid suggested a killer who changed his MO in order to avoid patterns forming to decrease the likeliness of his capture and Morgan put forward the idea that the UnSub was experimenting, finding the best method for release. The discussion continued until JJ received a frustrated phone call from Strauss. It was an unfortunate and liberating shock to find legal issues and jurisdictional banter had halted their journey to the northeastern state, leaving them all to mingle in the building until further notice.

Still stranded at eleven, the group had reviewed the case eight times, developed ten hypothesis for the cause of the varying kills and had eventually resorted to discussing old Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes. Reid was confessing his lack of knowledge on 'Spuffy' when they were interrupted by a knock at the door. There stood Rossi in the doorway, a smaller figure ghosting behind him.

/

"Ideally I don't want you staying here by yourself," he said. The young girl just looked at him and shrugged in apathetic understanding.

"You can meet my team, they're nice people," Rossi found himself clarifying, unsure of the girl's feelings. This was weird for more than one reason.

"Are you hungry?"

With a polite shake of the head and twitch of the mouth she indicated no.

"Thirsty? I can buy some soda if thats what you like," he said, more awkward than he was used to.

The girl considered this a moment, a small furrow forming on her brow, but then she shook and smiled, raising her eye brows, indicating that she would be happy with whatever he had. Rossi nodded to himself frowning, considering this too. A kid staying with him? Wow. Could he even manage it? He was shunted from his doubt by the rustle of the girl picking up her coat from the sofa and walking towards the front door. She looked at him questioningly.

"Yeah, we're going now," Rossi said and she walked to his car as he fetched the keys.

/

"Guys, I'd like to introduce you all to Leah,"

With perplexed smiles the crowd chorused a "hi Leah". The girl stepped forward into the room, dodging around Rossi so she could see them all. Examining them with wide eyes, her bright blue irises scanned the team. _She's about 15 _thought Morgan, _16_ thought Hotch, _14_ thought Reid, although he found her with an elusive and curiously aged face. It was her hair Prentiss took note of, a plain brown colour but admirably long and abundant, as did JJ note. _Now I've got an equally immature girl friend to concocted witty puns with_ was all that crossed Garcia's mind.

"Leah is going to be staying with me for a little while whilst things go on at home in England,"

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you," said JJ extending a hand, slipping into her role as spokeswoman for the team, "England? That's pretty far away. I bet the weather isn't any better here in Virginia though?"

The girl simply cracked a grin and stared her in the eye, raising a palm in a subtle wave, ignoring her outstretched hand and question.

"Well, your in good hands with our Rossi here," said Morgan with a laugh.

"The only thing you'll be in danger of are screaming fangirls," joked Prentiss, gathering quiet laughs from the group.

Ignoring the joke, Rossi continued with introductions.

"This is Emily," he pointed to her and then round the table, "Derek, Aaron, Penelope, JJ, Spencer,"

They all smiled in turn.

"Why don't you go on down to the kitchen? Ill meet you in a minute," said Rossi to the girl, who then smiled again, nodded and proceeded to exit. Flipping from his fatherly mask into hardcore profiler, Rossi looked suddenly serious.

"So, the case. What's going on?" and from there the situation in Maine was laid out for him.

/

Still stranded at midday, JJ found herself longing for a drink. In the kitchen she stumbled across Leah, head rested in palm as she scribbled in a large A4 pad at the table. JJ walked over to the coffee jug, poured herself a healthy dose, topped it up with milk and approached the girl.

"Hey," she said as she pulled out a neighbouring chair and settled herself, "what you working on?"

The girl smiled - _she smiles so much,_ thought JJ - and leant back, allowing JJ to study the paper. She couldn't help but let her jaw drop as she stared at an assortment of numbers and letters that lay scattered around the sheet in uniform rows, each character settled casually in a square box.

"What're you calculating? The meaning of life?" JJ joked, a baffled laugh bumbling through her lips, astounded by the complicated array of digits. The excruciatingly precise algebra of her maths seemed almost Reid-like. Whoa. Leah's smile extended as JJ sat there dumbfounded. With her pen, the girl pointed to a sentence at the peak of the page.

_If 42 Was The Meaning Of Life_

"Right..." Said JJ, still astounded, "Figures,"

Leah giggled, a quiet laugh that barely sounded louder than a whisper. It was the first noise JJ had heard her make, she then realised. The girl had turned her attentions back to the page, scribbling down new numbers and symbols, easing her avid mind's calculations on to paper. JJ leant forward to peer down at her workings, allowing a hand to place itself on the girl's shoulder. It was then, upon contact, the girl freaked.

She flung herself from JJ, launching her chair to the floor and practically falling over her feet as she manically backed away. Her eyes were wide, searching, mortified, fixated on JJ as she stumbled from the table. JJ, as startled as the young girl, had reflexively felt for her gun but released and put her hands up, palms towards the girl.

"Whoa, Leah, its fine. You're okay, its okay," JJ said.

One arm had wrapped itself protectively around the girl's frame whilst the other searched wildly backwards, reaching for the wall.

"Leah, please. Everything okay, you don't have to be frightened,"

A wave of panic tinged the girl's pupils but then something seemed to calm internally. With a slackening of her stance, a small laugh escaped her mouth and her face turned embarrassed and disconcerted. She looked around her, conscious of the eyes that'd glanced her way. JJ whispered to her then.

"C'mon, its fine. Sit down," she slowly picked up her tipped chair and patted it, smiling comfortingly. Leah tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear and walked forward, silently slipping into the chair beside JJ. JJ scanned her face, trying with desperation to unravel the girl's erratic emotions but found herself staring wildly into a dark, teenage abyss.


	2. Chapter 2

**I don't own Criminal Minds although I'm sad I don't... *cries***

**Please R&R... this is my first FanFic and 1) I'm not sure if anyone will even like it and 2) I'm going to need some help deciding where it goes... suggestions welcome!**

**Thanks everyone!**

Rossi was making his way to JJ's office when he all but knocked her over as she came towards him, nursing a coffee and pouring over one of the familiar brown files.

"JJ, just who I was looking for. Has there been an update on the case?" he questioned.

"Urh, no. Sorry Rossi," she mumbled, still absorbed in the details the file held.

"No worries," he replied, beginning his walk back to the conference room. Turning around simultaneously with the recall of the early events, JJ called out after him.

"Um, Rossi," he turned upon hearing his name and JJ started towards him, "is everything okay with Leah? The kid practically jumped out of her skin when I touched her."

JJ's voice was pitted with concern, a motherly affect that'd come to her with the birth of Henry. At seeing this in her, Rossi sighed, overcome with sympathetic sorrow.

"I was hoping that wouldn't happen," he said.

"Is it bad?" asked JJ, stepping closer to Rossi, eyebrows drawing in worry. He paused for a moment, reasoning through the muddled story but, eventually, spoke.

"Her mother just attempted to kill her dad," it was plainly put but nothing would come from dipping it in sugar.

"Oh God," said JJ, "what... That's..." her sentence drifted away, falling down the same root as her thoughts.

"I know," said Rossi with a sigh.

"Why?"

"Renée, her mother, told the judge he'd been physically abusing her," a small gasp left JJ and she looked at the ground.

"Was he? I mean, there must have medical records, visits to to the ER..."

"He's a doctor. He would know how to treat her, how to avoid permanent damage," Rossi said with malice in his voice, scratching his words with serrations.

"That's awful," JJ was taken away by her thoughts a second and then said, "Leah, was she... Did he-?"

"They don't know. She won't testify." said Rossi, "she's abstaining from speech,"

"She can't talk," JJ said in a half questioning tone.

"More like she won't," Reid spoke then, they hadn't even heard his approach, "it's called selective mutism. With sufferers, its not that they can't speak, it's that they won't," he looked at them both, "who's not speaking?"

"It's a long story," said Rossi, patting Reid on the back as he walked away. Reid just looked at JJ with question.

"Spence, I need a favour. Have a look at Leah's work will you? She might need a hand,"

"Right away,"

Then their ways parted.

/

"Hey there Kiddo," he came up behind her.

Leah started, did a double take and, startled, flipped the page in her note pad. He approached the table.

"Wow, that's some pretty impressive calculations," She looked at his tall figure and then smiled appreciatively.

"42? How very galactic," he said with a grin. Leah giggled.

"So you're, uh, formulating an equation that defines 42 as the ultimate number using significant universal figures. I can see the Fibonacci sequence there... Pi too. I wouldn't have called Pi a universal or natural figure though..."

Reid lost himself in speculation for a moment and the girl just shrugged.

"But that's impressive. How old are you? Fifteen? Sixteen?" She nodded at the last, "Sixteen. Wow. I graduated at 12 but this is, well, on a scale of one to me, this is me," He laughed.

Reid, like JJ, was lost for words. Leah flicked back a page in her pad and glanced at it, but turned back before Reid could see.

"Are you working on something else?" Reid asked, intently interested on the working of her brain.

For a second she looked awkward but, after a second of thought, turned the page in her notebook. Upon this, the revealed page stole Reid's breath. She composed, in sketchy biro, an intricately precise and delicate drawing of an eye. Filling the whole page, it had an eeriness Reid had never experienced. The smooth lines and edges depicted the image with startling accuracy; something about it was odd, the piece having both the feel of a scientific diagram and a work of abstract art. There was however one thing that was disturbing to Reid: they eye had no pupil.

As beautiful and touching the drawing was, he couldn't ignore the missing detail. He looked at Leah as she stared, almost adoringly, down at the page. Her eyes were focused, intently trained, raking her eyes over the image. Reid swallowed.

"Wow, Leah! That's really quite amazing!" that was undeniable, "but, well, where's the-uh, the pupil?"

She shrugged.

"Well, you kinda need the pupil so you can see," he said.

Leah nodded blankly, still staring. Reid suddenly felt himself propelled to ask more.

"Is there a reason you drew it without a pupil?"

Leah merely shrugged.

"Leah? Can you, uh, write me an answer?"

The girl's head whipped round to him. Her eyes were full of anger, irrational but fuming. They seemed so full of everything, he could see as emotions scorched through her, each taking hold for a mere second whilst she held his gaze. He'd seen many people, all angry, insane, human... but he'd never seen someone's eye so erratic. Slowly, she cooled, her stare settled. She hand scrawled a sentence: _I don't why it doesn't have a pupil. She can't see._

Nervously Reid replied, worried about pushing the girl who seemed to be crumbling within.

"Why can't she see?"

_She doesn't want to._

"Why not?" he almost whispered.

Then the girl just smiled, something almost wicked stained her lips. She let out a little breath, like the starts of a laugh and her face softened. She shook her head, looked away and then met his gaze with a strange awe.

_I know what you're doing._

"You do?" said Reid, speaking as if he had no idea what she was talking about.

_Yes. Thanks._

"No worries," and then with a lack of words, he walked away.

/

"Okay, what's going on? Something's happened to that kid," Reid grabbed Rossi and JJ by the arms and pulled them aside from the group.

"Whoa, Reid... what d'you mean?" Rossi said, suddenly concerned.

"She had this drawing, an-and, it was of an eye but, it had no pupil," he spoke, brows furrowed in thought.

"So?" JJ said, glancing at Rossi with confusion.

"Reid, what's that mean?" Rossi said, his voice half concerned, half questioning the relevance.

"I read this article, about interpreting children's' art work - I mean I know she's not a child but it's relevant. And normally that sort of depiction would mean an uncertainty about public situations... or sight problems... but, there was something sinister about it. She wrote "she doesn't want to see" meaning the eye but, well,"

"It means her," Rossi finished.

JJ pushed a hand through her hair.

"That poor girl,"

"I know," said Rossi, "I know..."

"I think it's time she spoke,"


	3. Chapter 3

**Don't own Criminal Minds.. but if you're offering...**

**First FanFic guys so please R&R.. had a couple of lush reviews (thank you!) but curious as to what everyone else is thinking!**

**Side note: It's set around season 4-5... JJ's still liaison. Also, I'm not sure why Hotch hasn't appeared much, perhaps he hasn't had much to say, eh?**

**Love :) xo**

They were eating dinner. And it was awkward.

His plan had been to cook Penne Arrabiata, but when a light seemed to flicker behind the kid's eyes at the mention of a diner, he could hardly say no. It surprised him how such an ordinary thing could excite a child in a new and intense place. So, after returning home and Rossi's changing of clothes, they'd set out to Jimmy's, the diner that edged Rossi's neighbourhood. Things had been uncomfortable. Leah's eerily persistent silence had ruffled Rossi, something about it more perturbing than he expected. He felt her both fixated on him and entirely abstracted from his person, her eyes seeming to be elsewhere, focusing on nothing but invisible spectres she found in her mind. It wasn't until desert when Rossi had relaxed enough to allow his mind to wonder, twitching about various cases, his stocks and the new Omega he was tempted to purchase. Leah too had calmed, drifting off into a less intense day-dream, a transition from confusion to mild and absent thought. They ate their desserts, sundaes of two kinds, in dynamic preoccupation and, when they had finished, left the warm interiors of Jimmy's and returned to Rossi's house.

Leah had visited only when she was a child, but Rossi was pleased to see she could still remember his home. When the door had swung open as they arrived back, she grabbed her suitcase from next to the shoe rack - they hadn't had time to put it in her room before heading out that morning - and began trudging up the stairs, feet plodding silently on the carpeted wood. Rossi smiled after her and called, "going to put that in your room?" and she just turned and nodded, smiling at him in her calm, mysterious way.

Rossi found himself feeling odd by how preoccupied Leah had made him; how she had enveloped his brain with her silence and unnerving features, the curious way her eyes would look at objects, a deep gaze that both centred on something but also glared entirely though it. _Curious_.

Plumping up the cushions on the sofa, Rossi could have missed it, but as if a miracle, through the hiatus between putting one pillow down and lifting the next, he heard the distinct sound of falling. His breath froze. Without even a second of thought, he turned and bounded up the stairs, galloping the steps two at a time, and sprinted across the landing. Aiming for the broad oak door of the spare bedroom, Rossi launched himself forwards, flinging his weight into the room with propelled purpose. His knees lunged to the ground as he fell beside Leah. She was led, limbs oddly placed as if positioned by a person, flat on the ground, the suitcase abandoned neatly on the bed covers. Two of his fingers instinctively found their way to her neck, probing at the cream skin for a pulse: one hand balancing him on the plush, white carpet, the other snaking around her jugular. In an instance, his heart beat twice when he felt the warm throb beneath his touch, the reassuring swell that proved her life. But then, once again he froze as he realised his next move.

Yanking out his cell, he thrashed in 911 into it and began speaking hurriedly into the phone.

"Yes! Out of no where... Yes, she's eaten... Not that I'm aware of..." The conversation went on.

The speaker assured him an ambulance would be on its way and so he hung up, his head frantically lurching around with thought.

_What do I do?_

He wanted to call Reid or JJ, the two people who knew anything but he just - _I can't - _couldn't bring himself to draw them in. So instead, his fingers wrapped themselves around Leah's palm and probed at her neck, steadily counting the rhythm of her heart.

/

"Are you okay, Rossi?" asked Reid the next day at work.

Leah was in hospital, lying under mounds of white sheets.

"Yes, Reid,"

The medics had entered the room, asking questions that he couldn't understand.

"Are you sure?"

They'd taken her away, Rossi riding in the back, answering.

"Reid, yes. Everything's fine. Stop profiling me, kid,"

"Sorry, I just..." he didn't finish.

He could still see Leah's figure led in the ambulance, seeming as if to sleep rather than anything else. _She looked so peaceful,_ every burdensome weight was supported by the strength of slumber. The image of her body being laid on a creamy hospital bed swam through his mind; in a troubling way, though, he felt relieved. He hadn't realised he'd felt it but, now she was in other's hands, he hadn't noticed the fear that'd encompassed him. He was drowned by the horror of having to look after another human, a child. It was a responsibility like no other he'd had. And it frightened him.

Now at the conference room table, JJ entered, like so often bearing a coffee and a file.

"There's been another victim,"

"Jesus! If we could just be there-" said Morgan, his hand slamming the table.

"I know but," said JJ, "we have to be invited, by everyone involved,"

Although all the murders had happened in Maine, the bodies had been dumped so near to the New Hampshire border that, it was just too close to call.

"Is there nothing we can do?" asked Prentiss, her body leaning forward desperatley.

"Not a lot. Wait," said JJ.

"So, the new victim?" asked Reid.

Rossi didn't hear much else because his thoughts had drifted too far away, to an island of fear and shared sadness.

"Rossi?" JJ stared at him intently.

He was suddenly aware of everyone looking at him.

"I think I'm gong to have to sit this one out, guys," he began to stand up.

"Rossi, man? What?" Morgan's face was confused.

"A personal matter," He saw JJ and Reid exchange glances. Hotch noticed too.

"Well, if you need some time to sort out whatever it is, then, go ahead," said Hotch.

"Thanks guys," Rossi mumbled absently, and then he left.

"What is all that about?" said Morgan, slightly miffed by Rossi's sudden abandonment.

"Nothing, I guess," said JJ before she continued with her presentation. _Nothing..._


	4. Chapter 4

**I wish I did but, unfortunately I don't own CM..**

**Thanks for all the reviews guys, its so encouraging! If anyone would like to help me figure out where this fics going then PM me!**

**Love :) xo**

Rossi watched as the girl's eyes flickered, starting to part. A pale hand reached to her face and brushed something invisible off her cheek, bringing her forward from the grips of unconsciousness. Beside him was a doctor whose name he'd forgotten, but a tall and well built man, whom he'd placed trust in. With a twitch of the head, Leah became suddenly aware of them, and Rossi found her unusually vigilant for someone who'd been previously asleep. Her eyes searched their faces: her own was a mask of confusion but he could see the odd remorse hidden behind her skin. The doctor looked at a clip board briefly.

"How're you feeling Leah?" He asked her.

She shrugged. Her lack of speech didn't startle the doctor, selective mutism was scrawled across the sheet he held. An irrational anger swelled within Rossi as he stared at the words, written as if they were a virus or something to be cured with antibiotics.

"You should be able to go home today," the doctor sounded aggravatingly off-hand, "just going to need to ask some questions first,"

Leah shrugged again.

"What do you remember from just before you collapsed?"

Leah considered the question, drawing her eyebrows together and lowering her gaze but Rossi could tell she wasn't really pondering. She looked back at the doctor and pulled her best I-don't-know face. Her best fake I-don't-know face. Her consideration was almost flawless, a near-perfect forged facial expression that had the doctor buying it. Rossi smiled.

"You're sure?" Asked the doctor.

Her eyebrows were crinkled as if her brain was filling with frustration. She made herself nod a few times repetitively and she pulled the most believable why-can't-I-remember face he'd ever seen impersonated. Hell, he would have bought it too had he not had the job he did.

The doctor wrote some more notes and then said, with an uncomfortable look:

"I suppose it's okay for you to be going back home now. There doesn't appear to be a medical cause for the incident but," to Rossi now, "be on the lookout in case it happens again,"

"We will Doctor. Thank you," he shook the man's hand.

Rossi fumbled with a few things on the dresser next to the bed until the man had left and the door had clicked shut.

"Let's get going now kid. We've got some talking to do,"

/

Some dull song was strumming on the SUV's radio but Rossi let it play. He didn't have the energy to turn it off. His hands gripped steadily at the wheel, like they were frightened they'd lose their hold if he didn't focus. Beside him, Leah remained as silent as ever. Just speak, he thought. He'd always been good at processing emotions, that was part of his damn job, but the kid, well, he was at a complete loss with her! He was sad for her, angry at her, scared because of her... He couldn't cope. He needed her to speak, so he could help her. He needed to know what she was thinking, going through. And most of all, at that moment, he needed to know why she'd collapsed.

"Leah," he began, staring out the front window. She just shook her head into her lap.

"No Leah, this is something we have to talk about,"

Uncomfortably, she looked out the window. She swallowed.

"Leah?"

"Yes?" She was so quiet. Her voice was a tiny whisperer, like a rustle of leaves as the wind blows. "Yes?" She repeated sheepishly, trying to find her voice.

Within him, relief swelled.

"Leah," he said, snatching glances at her as they drove, "oh Leah, what happened, kid?"

"I'm so tired, Rossi," she whispered.

"Tired?"

"So tired of being tired. I just want it to stop," she looked at him, "make it stop, Rossi. Make it stop,"

"What happened yesterday, Leah?" He asked.

"Im sorry," the kid's face crumpled and Rossi saw her eyes fill, pearls of water beading along her lashes.

"Leah, everything's going to be ok. I'll make everything right, I promise you kid,"

The tears spilled, teetering before tumbling down her cheeks.

"Rossi," he reached out a hand and all she did was look at it. She couldn't touch him, she couldn't make herself.

"I can't stop seeing it,"

/

"She didn't see anything. She told us that before she stopped talking," the small woman said, "she said she was in her bedroom and when she heard the shouts, she got into bed and covered her ears,"

"Oh," said Rossi, "smart kid,"

"She is. Kid's a genius," the social worker looked at him, "you sure you can do this?"

"What'd happen if I didn't?" The question was rhetorical.

"You're doing a good thing. The kid's been through a lot. She could use someone like you,"

"Thanks," he said.

"Well, she's just through there,"

/

Rossi wanted to ask Leah more but, once the SUV had pulled into his drive and the clicks of the door locks had sounded, Leah had sunk back into her silence. Like a drug addict, she relapsed to her comfort, to what'd get her through the day and this filled Rossi with renewed fear.

They silently entered the house and then both slouched up the stairs. Leah walked into her room and sat on the bed. Rossi wanted to follow her but instead hovered by the door.

"Let's get some sleep Leah," he said softly.

Her head nodded and she offered him a weary smile.

"I'll see you in the morning, alright?"

She nodded again.

"Sleep well, Leah. Sweet dreams,"


End file.
